I was allergic to my house! Choked by microscopic mould spores

Bryony Lang became allergic to tiny mould spores in her house[MIKE PARTRIDGE]

When she moved into a shared house on the Sussex coast, Bryony Lang was looking forward to starting a new life. But within two months of unpacking she was on the move again after becoming allergic to her new home.

“I moved into the rented house with two friends. I was excited about living in Brighton where I also planned to work,” says Bryony, 23, a secondary school teacher. “But within days of moving in my chest felt tight when I woke up each morning. I was relying on my inhaler and antihistamine pills much more. I began wheezing and coughing whenever I was inside.”

Bryony had been diagnosed with an allergy to dust mites and pets when she was five and is also asthmatic. Because she regularly took preventative medicine and inhalers for these conditions she couldn’t understand what was causing this allergic reaction.

“I found it really strange because our house was spotlessly clean and we had no animals,” she says. “I tried sleeping in my housemate’s room but had the same problem there. I was struggling to breathe in every room and there was no escaping it.

“I kept having breaks outside so I could get some fresh air. I started to feel like there was something seriously wrong with me.

“I was fine when I visited other friends or went out but the moment I came home, I’d start wheezing again. It made life extremely difficult,” she adds.

Last August, two months after moving in, her GP referred her for allergy testing. By then Bryony had started waking up in the night gasping for breath.

“I realised after another attack that I couldn’t stay in the house any longer,” she says. “It was very frightening. My family thought it was best for me to move back with them. I couldn’t believe I was allergic to my own house.”

Once back with her family in Hertfordshire she had a skin prick test to discover what was causing her new allergy.

Her results a week later revealed it was mould spores.

“I was really shocked as the house didn’t seem particularly mouldy or damp. I didn’t know you could be allergic to mould spores anyway,” Bryony says.

I realised after another attack that I couldn’t stay in the house any longer.

Bryony Lang

The spores (microscopic particles) are found everywhere. They are released into the atmosphere by damp spots on walls, window frames or even decaying food. They can be common in houses which have little or no ventilation.

Dr Adam Fox, a consultant paediatric allergist at two London training hospitals, says it is usually dust mites, pollen and animal dander which cause such reactions.

However he has treated cases like Bryony’s too.

“Some people develop an allergy to mould spores just like some do to the other more common triggers,” he says. As with dust or pollen, they are breathed in and enter the lungs.

“Those who are atopic or have an allergic predisposition to a number of things which set off wheezing and coughing are more likely to encounter reactions to more unusual causes such as mould spores.”

Now successfully diagnosed, Bryony controls her allergies with a drug-free gel called AllergieBLOCK (£11.99, allergieblock.co.uk or boots.com) that she rubs on the end of her nose every day.

It is a positively charged invisible gel which works like a magnet and “snags” all the negatively charged airborne particles that float past her nose.

It claims to prevent the allergic symptoms because it stops the triggers which cause them from entering the nose.

“Since using it I can go and visit my friends in my old house without having any sort of allergic reaction,” says Bryony.

“It’s such a relief and I’m now hoping to move back again later this summer.”